In the process of wiring a building, it is often necessary to pull wires through common routing members or components such as conduits, junction boxes and outlet boxes. It is important when installing the wiring to ensure that electrical insulation on the wiring is not damaged by being pulled across a sharp edge of one of the routing members or components. It is also desirable, to provide an apparatus and method which will allow a lone worker to safely pull the wiring through the routing members or components, without assistance from a second worker.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,226, to Manning, the inventor of the present invention, discloses a wire installation tool in which rollers attached around the periphery of an aperture in a plate are utilized for protecting the wiring as it is pulled through a routing member or component to which the plate has been attached. The disclosure and teachings of Manning U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,226 are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. FIGS. 1-7 show one form of a wire installation tool, in accordance with Manning U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,226, which has proved to be effective and efficient for its intended purpose and has achieved commercial success. Despite its being generally effective for its intended purpose, in circumstance where a substantial length of wiring has been pulled through the wire installation tool, removal of the tool from the routing member or component requires that the wire installation tool be moved longitudinally along the entire length of the wiring before it can be removed from the wiring. This situation can occur at an intermediate junction box in a long wiring run.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved wiring tool and method addressing the above-described problem.